BR Intercity Advert 1970s?

[4130]

A few years ago, YouTube hosted a collection of BR Intercity advertisements from the early to mid-1970s. The central slogan was that rail travel was easy, and the adverts spread good cheer and joy with their lively music.

There was a film each for Edinburgh, Glasgow, London shopping trip, a London Museum visit with children, and a family visit. The all-new air-conditioned MkII carriages were featured.
"There are so reasons to visit London! With Intercity it´s easy, easy, easy! Make it to a regular trip"!
Unfortunately, this film collection is no longer available on YouTube. Does anyone remember these films or know where to find them online? Thanks!!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Many BR adverts of that era featured a certain Sir James Savile OBE, whose reputation has plummeted posthumously to an extent that hardly any footage of him is now available to the public.

 

[contrex]

Many BR adverts of that era featured a certain Sir James Savile OBE, whose reputation has plummeted posthumously to an extent that hardly any footage of him is now available to the public.

I found this quite quickly - maybe it is blocked in Austria for copyright reasons, and you'd need a VPN?

Eight TV commercials by Allen Brady & Marsh from 1980-3 featuring the now discredited Jimmy Savile: Businessmen and Businessladies, InterCity Savers, London Savers, Party Size Awaydays, Business Meetings, London Saver, Cheap Awayday Returns. Agency: Allen, Brady & Marsh (ABM). Creatives: Val Valentine and Len Lawton. Client: British Rail

 

[WesternLancer]

Many BR adverts of that era featured a certain Sir James Savile OBE, whose reputation has plummeted posthumously to an extent that hardly any footage of him is now available to the public.

I don’t think Jimmy Saville was engaged to do BRs ads until later in the 1970s. Connected with a change in advertising agency used.

 

[The exile]

I don’t think Jimmy Saville was engaged to do BRs ads until later in the 1970s. Connected with a change in advertising agency used.

“This is the age of the train” era. Strange to think that the trains that spawned all the quips about the age of the train being the problem were positive youngsters compared to Sprinters today!

 

[WesternLancer]

“This is the age of the train” era. Strange to think that the trains that spawned all the quips about the age of the train being the problem were positive youngsters compared to Sprinters today!

Good point!

Meanwhile this post by Tim Dunn, occasional forum user and a well informed commentator on things relate to design and rail communication in my view, on you tube shows an ad from the pre 'Age of the Train' era - Travel Inter City Like the Men Do - - seated in Mk2 coaches tho non air con might be of interest to @4130

Tim's intro post is of interest and copied here:

In attempt to correct the perception that more men travelled Inter-City than women, BR created this knees-up sing-song

Taken from a VHS compilation produced for the last InterCity hospitality event, March 1994.

Some years ago, a BR employee named Frank Dumbleton rescued some VHS tapes literally from a British Rail skip in York. These included many TV and Cinema ads from the 70s and 80s. He digitised them and has given permission for them to be reproduced, here.

British Rail started to advertise on television after it had established the Inter-City revolution in the 1960s. Most of the commercials were aimed at enticing people out of their cars, or dissuading them from choosing internal air travel.

Whilst we can look back at these ads with joy, we shouldn’t have rosy spectacles on. A nationalised rail/operator system was far from perfect: reality was not as these ads portray. They are adverts, not documentaries. Now, British railways carry twice the passengers as they did back then, and are in a far better state.

A copy of this ad also now resides with the National Railway Museum archive in York.

@timmydunn might have more of these or even the specific ones the OP recalls

The style of the ad shows that the 'Age of the Train' themed campaign would have been a significant shift in advertising style over something like this, to a more 'modern' approach (not getting drawn on the involvement of Mr Saville in all of this - a topic which is covered well in Christian Wolmar's book on BR in a section on Sir Peter Parker's work on trying to boost BR's public image and win customers back after long periods of decline)

 

[stuving]

I couldn't find any archived newspaper reports of its start, but several pieces from June 1984 saying British Rail had announced they were ending the "Age of the train" advertising campaign "which has been running for five years". So that gives you a time frame for those, give or take a year.

 

[WesternLancer]

I couldn't find any archived newspaper reports of its start, but several pieces from June 1984 saying British Rail had announced they were ending the "Age of the train" advertising campaign "which has been running for five years". So that gives you a time frame for those, give or take a year.

The 'Age of the Train' adverts have a wikipedia page I see

That has a footnote reference as follows and hopefully the article mentioned is well researched, so gives a start date of 1979, which fits with your posted info

• Smith, Lewis Charles. "Marketing modernity: Business and family in British Rail’s “Age of the Train” campaign, 1979–84." The Journal of Transport History 40.3 (2019): 363-394.

The wiki page also attributes the adverting campaign to an Ad agency (ABM agency) commissioned whilst Sir Peter Parker was BR Board Chairman, his Chairmanship commenced in 1976 - so the timeline makes sense.

HSTs and Mk3 coaches feature heavily in the Age of the Train ads IIRC.

This all suggests the adverts the OP recalls are from an earlier era (use of Mk2 carriages for example).

 

[contrex]

Sir Peter Parker was BR Board Chairman, his Chairmanship commenced in 1976 - so the timeline makes sense.

I distinctly remember taking a train from Bristol TM on a certain day in 1977. I remarked to the chap at the barrier that it was a nice day, and he said 'Yes, and it's Peter Parker's birthday!'. I just checked his DOB and it was August 30th 1924.